Narcissit? Who me?

Tuesday, January 4, 2011

For Arguments Sake

If the unimaginable yet very likely, ever occurs and robots take over the world prompting the destruction of civilized society as we know it, I’m worried. Not about serving a robot over-lord, but rather I’m scared that when the robot’s batteries eventually die, and a new era dawns for humanity, what objects of value will their archeologists uncover? Gone are the days spent drawing on cave walls, and fashioning things out of sturdy material like stone. With the gaining momentum of e-readers and the entirety of our lives played out on digital devices, what will be dug up? Centuries old Kindles? Computer chips? My cell phone? Good luck using it! I have a hard enough time finding my charger now, never mind trying to locate one under centuries of dust and robot arms. Truthfully, I don’t know much about technology or chaos theory, or really archeology, but it really makes me think.

A long time ago people sculpted things from marble, chiseled their words into stone, wrote letters and buried ships full of culturally significant material in elaborate burial ceremonies. Today, it is more likely to find a sculpture made of tin foil than marble. It will cost $1 million and resemble garbage. But rest assured it will be “in dialogue” with conventional ideas of art. Sure. In modern times we text or e-mail people our words. Even worse we write them on the upmost intangible thing. The Internet. And I don’t think anyone has ever been buried in his or her Honda Civic surrounded by their worldly possessions. At least not that I’ve heard. We are entering the highest echelon of an ephemera era. Everything is disposable, degradable, and digital.

So where am I going with this? Well, I present these facts in support of my argument for not getting a new cell phone. If the world is just going to get taken over by robots and all technology destined to be lost, why should spend my money on something so fleeting?